Cup or free roam? Need thoughts

[UnchosenOne]

I'm getting my first chameleon in a couple of days. Still not sure if it will be a Panther or Jacksons. Depends on what I see at the expo and who really jumps out at me.
I was wondering how well anyone might think they will do hunting in my cage. I left the bottom somewhat empty so if they go down there they should be able to see very clearly. But a lot for the light it blocked down at the bottom by the plants up higher.
So will they go down there looking? Do they really go everywhere to search for food? Or should I use the cup method higher up in the cage?
It's a little bit cooler down there in those last few inches so I'm worried they will stay in the warmer area and not go down to the bottom.
The cup and funnel in the back is for catching water from the dripper. Just did some moving around so I can put a much smaller funnel in and still catch almost all of it
The bottom is 24x24 and is covered in those square foot floor tiles.

 

[juice28]

do a search on here for that and you will get tons of posts about which is better/ Im still pretty new to personal chameleon keeping but i personally do both and id say, yea your cham will hunt. my female likes to make a dash for the door now once its open so ill toss a few crickets in there so she can pick them off and ill put some other feeders in her cup...works 1/3 of the time honestly lol she know i have food so she is now leaving the free range feeder for later and still coming for the door.. but it used to work great lol

 

[UnchosenOne]

Really I am just worried because I've trimmed the plants up a bit and they still create a pretty good effect of blocking the light down there. So I'm just worried that they won't go down there unless they are starving and I don't want that to happen to them

 

[jamjam]

At first i say cup feed so you could tell if your cham is eating or not and how much. could always depend on your cham they might just prefer one over the other cant harm to do both that way you have a rough idea on how many tlhey are eating yet still be active and excercise while hunting. The bad of free roam is the potential they escape the enclosure or if not found they could bite your cham when its sleeping

 

[UnchosenOne]

They aren't getting out of this cage. Not unless they can jump over the 12 inch barrier I built into it or bite through the screen. But all this worrying is making me wish I had gone and done a all branch system with more hanging and trailing kinds of plants instead of one big main tree type of thing. Oh well. Maybe I'll slowly change it over time.

 

[devol]

I personally hand feed and let him hunt.

 

[pigglett79]

Crickets will typically go toward that top of the cage near the lights, they dont really stay at the bottom. If you are feeding other things like supers you might want to use a cup or hand feed them. You can put silk worms and horn worms on the branches around the cage and let him hunt them. I mainly hand feed or place prey items on branches or leave and watch to be sure they are consumed.

 

[UnchosenOne]

Crickets are that good at climbing? I didn't think they would ever leave the ground in a case like this. If they climb then I won't feel so worried about it. Although now I'm wondering about the sneaky little suckers getting out on me...

 

[ridgebax1]

I prefer to cup feed so I can keep track of what he eats; but now that he is older I will occasionally put a hornworm or silkworm on a branch and let him "hunt" it. I was told the crickets will climb upward toward the heat from the lights if they get out of the container.

 

[Ninkylou]

I think like most I do a bit of everything, a few crickets for hunting, cup for worm type things and dubias and I put some crickets in the screen back bottle feeder thing I made. I can't hand feed the veiled, she hisses and bites but Ziggy will take anything from my palm or tweezers. Crickets are mad for the top of the screen I was amazed. Superworms will also go up but I find when I let those go free they often get between the bottom panel and the screen edge and just die. Since they are a rare treat I just stick to hand feeding them and putting them in the screen backed feeder bottle for the veiled.

 

[CarlC]

I do both. Since my lights do not come on until 10am and I leave for work at 6am the first feeding is from a cup. When I get home at 8pm I put in some free range food. On my days off I free range all day.

Carl

 

[ThatDigitalChameleon]

I personally hand/cup feed and free range. Gets him exercise and i get the joy of feeding him personally.

 

[UnchosenOne]

I'll keep away from hand feeding attempts for now. He's very skittish for now. And my fears were for nothing. I have never seen those little guys climb like that. They go right up to a convenient feeding height when climbing up the screen. Just have to monitor how many are in there so they don't start trying to much on him. Though I will keep a little tiny dish of cricket food off to the side to try and prevent that